In the past few decades, the availability and use of electronic computing devices, such as desktop computers, laptop computers, handheld computer systems, tablet computer systems, and cellular phones have grown tremendously, which provide users with a variety of new and interactive applications, business utilities, communication abilities, and entertainment possibilities.
One such communication ability is electronic messaging, such as text-based, user-to-user messages. Electronic messaging has grown to include a number of different forms, including, but not limited to, short message service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), electronic mail (e-mail), social media posts and direct messages, and enterprise software messages. Electronic messaging has proliferated to such a degree that it has become the primary mode of communication for many people.
While electronic messaging can be a particularly efficient mode of communication for a variety of reasons—instant delivery, limitless distance connectivity, recorded history of the communication—electronic messaging does not benefit from the advantages of in-person communication and telecommunication. For example, when communicating via telecommunication, a person can adjust, alter, or augment the content of their message to an intended recipient through tone, volume, intonation, and cadence. When communicating in-person, or face-to-face, a person can further enhance or enrich their spoken words with eye contact and shift of focus, facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, and the like. In electronic messaging, users lack these critically important signals, clues, and cues, making it difficult for people to convey the subtler aspects of communication and deeper intent. As a result, issues of meaning, substance, and sentiment are often lost or confused in electronic messages, which can, and very often does, result in harmful or damaging misunderstandings. Miscommunications can be particularly damaging in interpersonal and business relationships.